Everyone who ventures into the out-of-doors should possess the basic skills for outdoor living. He should know how to make a good campfire, what types of wood give fast heat for boiling tea, and what types provide hot flames for broiling steaks. He should know how to paddle a canoe, how to forecast weather, how to use a compass, what the sudden cry of a bluejay means, and what a bear is up to when he stands on his hind legs. The average outdoorsman does not have to be a wilderness survival expert, but he should know the basics. After all, almost everyone can become lost or lose his gear when his canoe is upset in a choppy wilderness lake.

The outdoorsman should know all this and much more. He should know about the natural world around him - how it lives and functions. He should know its moods, its sounds, and its signals. But above all, the outdoorsman must have a code, an outdoor ethic, to ensure that his life and travels in the out-of-doors are in harmony with nature. Man, like all creatures, is a user. This is how nature created him. Frequently our use leaves wounds. Every campfire, every hiking trail, every fish caught, and every grouse shot is a wound. But these are wounds that nature heals and repairs with ease. An outdoorsman should never leave wounds that will permanently scar. That is what the outdoor code and the outdoor ethic are all about.